Slipping Stalls, Skids, Spirals, and Rope Breaks

Some random bits scribbled by Jeremy Zawodny

Today was flights 37-41. The first one was to 5,000 feet. The tow
was smooth. I boxed the wake twice and it wasn't difficult at all.
After release, Jim demonstrated stalling in a slip and in a skid. I
got to try both. I was surprised by the speed we picked up during
recovery. But that was nothing compared to the sprial dive
demonstration. We pulled 3 or 3.5 Gs coming out of the spiral dive.
It got to my stomach a bit. I'm sure it'll be easier next week when I
have to perform the manuver. Before I knew it, we were at 2,000 feet
and it was time to land. After finding out that Jim wanted me on
runway 31 instead of 24 (which is what he told me on the ground), I
got in the pattern and landed just fine. Since we were in N7531
again, he had to do the radio calls. Hopefully we'll fly 64E or 87R
next week. I like them more anyway.

The second flight was to 1,000 feet. We released downwind in the
pattern and I jumped right into to my landing checklist. (My release
was a bit low, but not horrible.) The landing was good--I touched
down just where I wanted. The other thing I noticed was that I'm
sub-consciously picking up landmarks for my pattern on 31. I line up
with a major road on downwind, turn near the big warehouse-looking
building, and so on.

The third filght was my frist simulated rope break. Jim pulled the
release right as we hit 200 feet. I put the nose down, performed a
180 degree left turn (45 degree bank, just as we discussed) and landed
back on runway 13. I was surprised and how easy the manuver was. I
expected the rope break to be more stressful. Granted, we had
just talked about it and I knew he was giong to do
it, but still.

The fourth flight was another simulated rope break. Jim didn't
tell me what he had planned. When I asked (just before takeoff) his
response was something like "well, stay with the tow plane as long as
you can..." so I was suspicious. He pulled the release right about
the time we reached 15 feet of altitude. The towplane hadn't even
taken off yet. So I pulled the airbrakes, put the nose down, and
landed on what remained of runway 31. My first "foreward rope break"
went pretty well.

The fifth and final flight was another 200 foot rope break. Well,
it was closer to 250 feet. Jim wanted it to be surprise and it almost
was. I expected to be towing up a few thousand feet or maybe a rope
break at 600 feet. But just before takeoff, the tow pilot made his
radio call and I heard him say that he was going to tow us to 200 feet
and we'd be returning on runway 13. Oops. He spoiled the surprise.
The good news is that he break went just fine. Jim asked me to aim
for a particular point farther down the runway, and I hit it pretty
well.

All in all, it was a fun day. The rope breaks helped to build my
confidence for low-altitude problems. And the slipping and skidding
stalls were interesting. I just wish the spiral dive hadn't gotten to
me so much. I just need a bit more work on my touchdown attitude.
But I'm feeling really good with pattern and landings now.

Posted by jzawodn at January 03, 2003 11:10 PM

Reader Comments

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine and
mine alone. My current, past, or previous employers are not responsible for what I
write here, the comments left by others, or the photos I may share. If
you have questions, please contact
me. Also, I am not a journalist or reporter. Don't "pitch" me.

Privacy: I do not share or publish the email addresses
or IP addresses of anyone posting a comment here without consent.
However, I do reserve the right to remove comments that are spammy,
off-topic, or otherwise unsuitable based on my comment
policy. In a few cases, I may leave spammy comments but remove any
URLs they contain.